Blur’s Dave Rowntree has signed to an indie label for his debut album.
The ‘Parklife’ group’s drummer has inked a deal with Cooking Vinyl for his first solo record, which is due out in 2022.
The 57-year-old musician-and-composer said in a statement: “As a kid I used to spend hours spinning the dial on my radio, dreaming of escape to all the places whose exotic stations I heard.
“I’ve tried to make an album like that – tuning through the spectrum, stopping at each song telling a story about a turning point in my life, then spinning the dial and moving on. I’m very excited to be releasing the album on Cooking Vinyl next year.”
Cooking Vinyl’s managing director Rob Collins said: “Dave’s album blew me away and there wasn’t anything going to stop me releasing it. He’s a very talented drummer!”
Dave’s album news comes after Blur’s frontman, Damon Albarn – who just dropped his second solo record, ‘The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows’ – teased that he’s set to start discussing a reunion with his bandmates.
Asked if Blur is finished, he insisted: “Not at all.”
Damon, 53, continued: “I am just about to have a conversation with people about Blur and I would love to sing all those songs again. I miss the songs. I miss playing with Blur.”
In August, lead guitarist Graham Coxon insisted he’d be up for reuniting with the group when the time is right.
He said: “That’s always been the thing with Blur – they’ll do it when they really need to and not for any other reason. It doesn’t really seem genuine to just get back together and just do gigs for a bit of spondage. We need to have some sort of focus for how we would work.”
The Britpop legends haven’t toured together since their 2015 run in support of their comeback LP, ‘The Magic Whip’, though Damon reunited with Dave, Graham and bassist Alex James at his Africa Express show in his hometown of Leytonstone in 2019.